Fires Across Central and South America

Fires are spread across the plains at the foothills of South America’s Andes Mountains (left edge) on August 20, 2003. This Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Aqua satellite shows hundreds, possibly thousands of "hot spots" spread across (clockwise from top left) Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. In eastern Paraguay, a huge plume of smoke spreads out like a fan over the terrain, while more diffuse smoke stretches over the bottom left of the scene.
Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC